Frans Plank, "Objects: Towards a Theory of Grammatical Relations"

×

Frans Plank, "Objects: Towards a Theory of Grammatical Relations"

Close

Objects have traditionally taken a back seat to subjects in most research into grammatical relations-and justifiably so, it could seem, in as much as subject is the primary grammatical relation outranking the relationally secondary objects in overall significance. In deed one might have hoped that almost all thatis to beknown about objects would conveniently be obtained as a by-product ofwork, much intensified in recent years, on subjects, all objects being essentially nothing but non-subjects. Now, regardless ofwhether it makes any sense to consider objects inherently less significant than subjects, it is evident from recent and not-so-recent theoretical discussions as well as from descriptive practice that the increase of our knowledge about objects, or at least ofour awareness of what makes these categories important and potentially controversial, has by no means kept pace with the progress that has been made with subjects. In the last analysis, the continuing terminological popularity of the traditional object distinctions-direct object, in direct object, oblique and/or adverbial object-barely conceals utter conceptual con fusion. The increasing uneasiness about the liberal employment of these distinctions especially in a universalist and typological context only confirms this impression.

×

Frans Plank, "Objects: Towards a Theory of Grammatical Relations"

Close